Lewis Hamilton has topped the second practice session at Sochi, eight-tenths of a second ahead of McLaren’s Kevin Magnussen. Nico Rosberg was nine-tenths behind his team-mate in third position.

McLaren have continued their strong performance this weekend, matching the Mercedes pace over the long run simulations.

Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas posted the best time during their long run simulations, averaging in the high 1:43.8s. McLaren’s Jenson Button averaged a further two-tenths behind.

Felipe Massa had a delayed start to the session; he finished in seventh position and was three-tenths off his team-mate’s long run pace.

Judging by Friday’s performance, McLaren have done their homework on their simulator and will be competing with Mercedes and Williams, providing they qualify well on Saturday.

Red Bull again struggled on the new Sochi Autodrom with Sebastian Vettel finishing ahead of Daniel Ricciardo in ninth position. Ricciardo brought the session to a halt by bringing out the red flag after his engine failed at Turn 11.

The duo were well off the pace in their race simulation as well, with Ricciardo a full second behind Hamilton and Vettel 1.5 seconds adrift.

Romain Grosjean had engine problems in FP1 where he complained of a lack of power; in FP2 he struggled with the set-up of the car and couldn’t find grip anywhere on the circuit. He was, however, still able to finish a place above his team-mate Pastor Maldonado, who was in 17th.

Both Toro Rossos ended the session in the top 10, with Daniil Kvyat in eighth and Jean-Eric Vergne in tenth. Vergne was half a second down on Kvyat and will have to improve for the rest of the weekend if he wants any chance of re-gaining his now vacant Toro Rosso seat.

Kamui Kobayashi was slowest in the session, however, he can be somewhat excused after sitting FP1 out as Roberto Merhi took his place.